Tag Archives: Alan Farrell

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, under Standing Order 46 (1), made a personal explanation to the Dáil in relation to the shooting of Brian Stack.

Father-of-three Mr Stack was aged 48 and the chief prison officer in Portlaoise prison when he was shot in the neck on March 25th, 1983, after attending a boxing match in the National Stadium.

He died 18 months after the shooting which left him paralysed and with severe brain damage.

During this address in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Adams said:

“For the record, I will again set out the sequence of events and my efforts to assist the family of Brian Stack. Austin Stack approached me in 2013 seeking acknowledgment for what happened to his father.

I met Austin on a number of occasions over the course of the following months, mostly on my own. Austin and his brother Oliver made it clear to me, personally and said publicly, that they were not looking for people to go to jail. They wanted acknowledgement and they wanted closure.

There is a note of that initial meeting, and I am releasing that today.

The computer stamp shows that this note was typed into the computer on 16 May, seven days after the first meeting with the family. Austin Stack speaks of his commitment to restorative justice processes. I believe him.

I told the Stack brothers that I could help only on the basis of confidentiality. This was the same basis on which I have tried to help other families. Both Austin and Oliver agreed to respect the confidential nature of the process we were going to try to put in place.

Without that commitment, I could never have pursued the meeting they were seeking, which took place later that summer.

The brothers were given a statement at that meeting by a former IRA leader. That statement was made available publicly by the Stack family. The statement acknowledged that the IRA was responsible for their father’s death, that it regretted it took so long to clarify this for them, that the shooting of Brian Stack was not authorised by the IRA leadership, and that the person who gave the instruction was disciplined.

The statement expressed sorrow for the pain and hurt the Stack family suffered.

Following the meeting, the family acknowledged that the process “has provided us with some answers that three separate Garda investigations failed to deliver. We would like to thank Deputy Adams for the role he has played in facilitating this outcome”.

Since then, the position of Austin Stack has changed.

In 2013, Austin gave me the names of four people whom he believed might have information on the case. He told me that he had been given these names by journalistic and Garda sources.

Austin denies giving me names. Why on earth would I say that I received the names from him if I did not?Continue reading →

Last night, on RTÉ One’s Late Debate, presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra spoke with his panel about the government negotiations between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, following the third vote – and rejection – of both Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as Taoiseach yesterday.

They were discussing public sector pay demands when things got a little heated.

Grab a tay…

Niamh Lyons: “My understanding of it is is that you know when you talk about USC and water whatever, those are the issues on the table that would be the basis of a deal that would allow them to do business. I’ve no, I think you’d be making a very big jump to say that they’ll sit down and agree together what policies they’ll discuss, as in, you know, the pay issue…”

Alan Farrell: “I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t be 100% sure and and very much like Thomas [Byrne], you can’t have the negotiation on live radio. But what I suppose, I could say would be that if it were to end up in the negotiations, it would probably be a good thing because clearly it’s something…”

Farrell: “Would you like me to answer your question or do you want me to leave? Cause I’ll leave Cormac.”

Ó hEadhra: “I want to know your position on this because I’ve been asking you. In fairness Alan Farrell…”

Farrell: “There’s nothing fair Cormac about the manner in which you conduct these interviews.”

Ó hEadhra: “It’s absolutely fair because there’s nothing fair to the public servants who want answers or the general public who want, who are homeless and who are on hospital trollies and whose children are being abused and don’t have social workers. There’s nothing fair about that.”

Silence.

Ó hEadhra: “There’s nothing fair about that.”

Farrell: “Well that’s, we weren’t discussing that, Cormac.”

Ó hEadhra: “We were discussing forming a Government.”

Farrell: “Yes we are.”

Ó hEadhra: “And I’m asking you…

Talk over each other

Farrell: “And what I’m telling you and I’ve repeated now three times, Cormac, if you continue to talk over me, Cormac, there is no point in me being here.”

Ó hEadhra: “What’s your position, let me ask you once more, on Lansdowne Road, do you personally, as a Fine Gael TD want to reopen Lansdowne Road in your talks with Fianna Fáil?”

Farrell: “Well I don’t know whether they will arise and I’m not on the negotiating team so I won’t be taking part in that discussion.”

Ó hEadhra: “What’s your position as a Fine Gael TD?”

Farrell: “My personal, my personal view is, if I take two, in fact, three categories of public servants, the first being An Garda Siochana. I’ve always and I’ve said this publicly on a number of occasions when I was a member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee for five years that entry-level gardai are not paid enough. €23,000 is completely insufficient. I have said it publicly at committee and on the floor of the Dáil that a two-tier entrance system for members of the teaching profession is completely unacceptable, i.e. a starting teacher today versus I think a starting teacher in 2011, I think is paid about €3,000 more, less I should say, which equates to about €250,000 over the course of that person’s career. An nurses, whether my view is their not paid enough, the reality is that they are leaving this country in droves because they can get more money elsewhere. And that applies to doctors, NCHD, it applies to public consultants, it applies to a whole range of public sectors workers, right across the…”

Ó hEadhra: “And you would include Dublin Bus drivers in that as well?”

Farrell: “No, that question hasn’t come across my desk.”

Ó hEadhra: “But if it did?”

Farrell: “No I don’t believe that, well, the question hasn’t come up so I don’t know, I can’t…”

Talk over each other

Ó hEadhra: “Ok, I see it did come up, in talks at least, when the Luas question came up.”

Farrell: “Well perhaps as a comparison between a private company and their employees trying to benchmark themselves against the public company…”

Ó hEadhra: “So let me get this right: You say ‘yes, possibly’ to some pay increase to gardai, some…”

Farrell: “I didn’t say ‘yes, possibly’, I said if I were in the position..”

Ó hEadhra: “Yeah.”

Farrell: “And it is my opinion that they should be paid more. I was even more direct than you suggest.”

On RTÉ Radio One’s Late Debate with Audrey Carville last night, the panel discussed the matter of Sgt Maurice McCabe – whose complaints prompted the Guerin report which will be published today – and how the serving officer still doesn’t have full access to PULSE.

During the debate, Mr Farrell said, among other things, that it was his belief Sgt McCabe’s access or non-access to PULSE is a matter for An Garda Síochána alone and that his access was curtailed because, Mr Farrell claimed, he put information into the public domain. His comments resulted in Sgt McCabe contacting the show and asking for an apology and for Mr Farrell to withdraw the comments.

Alan Farrell: “I think we have to remind the people listening, or just perhaps for the purposes of this discussion to remind people as to why this particular officer had his access to PULSE withdrawn in the first place.”

Padraig Mac Lochlainn: “To shut him down, to shut him down…”

Farrell: “No, no, no, no, no, hang on, you can disagree with me all you like in relation to the fact that he should or should not have access, which I believe is a matter for the gardaí to decide. I’m not disputing that aspect. What I’m suggesting is, and what has been, it’s been a point that’s been made on a number of occasions is that the officer had his right withdrawn because of the fact that there was information going into the public domain, that he was putting into the public domain, that should not have been put…”

Mac Lochlainn: “No, no, no, hold on, look, hold on now, let’s be very clear, no, no, no, be very careful where you’re going here, Alan. Be very careful because what Sgt McCabe did was he gave the information to members of the Oireachtas, he gave it to all delegated authorities, under the Garda Síochána Act legislation, he did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Talk over each other.

Mac Lochlainn: “Let me finish. Your understanding is wrong so be careful where you’re going with this. Let’s be very, very clear. Sgt Maurice McCabe, rather than be interviewed by the Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahony’s team, when they carried out there internal investigation in that dark period, I have to say. Rather than that, and the Garda Commissioner asserting that he had instructed Sgt McCabe to cooperate. What actually emerged, because Maurice McCabe taped the conversation, lucky for him, is that he was told to have no access to the PULSE system and to not cooperate with any third party further. So they tried to shut him down and, as we speak, he’s still being shut down. And it’s absolutely shocking to hear a Government TD say that there is no role for us in questioning why senior gardaí are not supporting Sgt Maurice McCabe, why he’s having to make internal complaints. And what message are we sending out to other officers who want to come forward and tell what’s happening. So I commend the officers who are coming forward this week. And I encourage any officers, who have anything to bring forward, to do..”

Farrell: “Can I just reiterate that that’s not the point that I was making, at all. I didn’t make that point. The point that I’m making is that internal disciplinary matters of An Garda Síochána, specifically with regard to access to PULSE is what I’m referring to, is a matter for the Garda Commissioner.”

Mac Lochlainn: “Yeah, they’re wrong.”

Later

Audrey Carville: “Alan, just back to you before the end of the programme. Maurice McCabe has been on to us, as we said, in relation to what you said in terms of him putting the information into the public domain. He wants a withdrawal of the remark and an apology.”

Farrell: “Well, I, I want to listen back to what I said but it is clear that I misspoke and I’d like to apologise for that. There was no malice intended but I’ll have to review that.”